In the annals of modern medicine, it was a horror story of global scope: thousands of babies dead in the womb and at least 10,000 others in 46 countries born with severe deformities.
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Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Lt.-Gov. of Ontario, presented the insignia of Member of the Order of Canada to Kelsey on Thursday on behalf of Gov. Gen. David Johnston.
“In a way, they tied her to the moonshot in showing what government scientists were capable of”, said Stephen Fried, a journalist who investigated the drug industry in the book Bitter Pills.
Kelsey was a new employee for the Food and Drug Administration, charged with reviewing requests to license new drugs, when thalidomide first came across her desk in 1960, The New York Times reported.
President John F Kennedy gave her the award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service. She refused to approve the drug because she had concerns about the drug’s safety.
“Through high ability and steadfast confidence in her professional decision, she has made an outstanding contribution to the protection of the health of the American people”.
Her name was Frances Kelsey, and she died today at the age of 101.
The school is not far from where young Frances Oldham grew up as a tomboy, one of four children born to a well-off Scottish mother, Frances Katherine Stuart, and English father, Col. Frank Trevor Oldham, on Shawnigan Lake Road. She always assumed she would work in Canada, but the Depression changed that, she told the Times Colonist.
Dr. Kelsey did not single-handedly uncover thalidomide’s hazards. She is survived by her two daughters, a sister, and two grandchildren.
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Kelsey was still working till she was 91. But the important thing here which everyone should know is her opposition was recognized by the nation. Her concern was confirmed to be simply trigger in 1962, when a research discovered that thalidomide was chargeable for delivery defects and problems in hundreds of infants whose moms had…
